Matthew Crawley's shock death in the Christmas episode of ITV's Downton Abbey
will leave a huge hole writes Serena Davies

So, there we have it. Arguably the brightest star in Downton Abbey's firmament has now gone out. The rumours were already rife. This paper had discovered that Dan Stevens had not signed up to another series but then there was a false lead a few weeks ago that claimed his character, Matthew Crawley, would leave us in the first episode of the fourth series, so we thought we knew how many minutes there were left to count. This made his end, right at the close of the Christmas episode, even more brutal. Death at the wheel of your own car, it was an awfully modern way to go, after Spanish flu and childbirth had denuded us of our last two major characters, and the Dowager Countess has still spent most of her life being transported by horse and carriage.

What does Stevens's departure mean for the most popular period drama 21st century Britain has yet known? (Although Call the Midwife is snapping at its heels.) In his time on Downton Abbey Stevens has achieved that hardest of tasks: making a very nice person - the type of character that is normally insuperably dull - mesmerisingly charismatic. Also, as a middle class man who inherits an earldom and a (entirely separate) fortune to boot, his character bridged the class divide upon which writer Julian Fellowes put such an emphasis, and embodied the hope in us all that our lives will transform themselves without our having to try very hard. That is, he embodied the fairytale.

None of the characters have had a plotline of the grandeur and emotion of Matthew and Lady Mary’s (Michelle Dockery) “will they won’t they” romance. This provided the dominant dramatic arc for the first two series and came to the deeply satisfying conclusion of Matthew’s proposal amidst the snowflakes in last year's Christmas special. Their secure marital union in the third and most recent series admittedly meant some falling off of interest levels in them, but still you need a performer of quite some calibre to deliver a line such as, “Now we can start making babies,” and make it sweet rather than risible.

The truth is that, apart from Maggie Smith, who had far less screen time, Stevens, with his subtlety, intelligence and light-touched gravitas, was the finest actor in Downton. And that is some compliment because the series is well cast, and includes several other excellent performances, not least Dockery’s. But it is an injustice that it is she alone, rather than them both, who has had the award nominations.

Downton has so endeared itself to the nation I have little doubt it still has years to run. But I would be surprised if the Dan Stevens years weren’t looked back on as its best, where role and interpreter were perfectly matched, and all wrapped up in a dashing hero. Fellowes will have his work cut out to give us another character who can reach so far into our hearts.